Most people up until now have bought into Bitcoin because of its properties - its store of value. In this monthly newsletter, I would like to show you how Bitcoin is now becoming a means of exchange as well. Using Bitcoin to pay someone for their goods or services means that the merchant or contractor has already been Orange Pilled. On NOSTR you can easily see which of your friends accept Bitcoin via their lightning wallet address. Some people already receive more communication via the lightning wallet address than via their email address. I realize a lot of people still use a closed ecosystem like Facebook / LinkedIn or X as their preferred communication system. I find convincing some to join a propitiatory platforms just to be able to communicate with some is passe now that we have NOSTR and email.

The main reason why Bitcoin is being used as a means of exchange is because of stablecoins. I wish it was because of Bolt 12 and how easy it is to use lightning or liquid bitcoin, but no, it is because people want to use the US dollar without having a bank account. Tether has a market cap of a 175 billion USD, but there are lots of other USD stablecoins.

The use of these stablecoins is far greater than the use of Lightning (layer 2 on bitcoin) and since July of 2025 the GENIUS Act has given financial companies the confidence to invest in these financial communication protocols. I still have high hopes for Lightning and I use it every day.

My nephew asked me a few days ago what I thought about the Stablecoins versus Gold / Silver or Bitcoin. Here is my reply.

To build on your point about fiat losing meaning, let’s clarify why assets like gold and Bitcoin hold inherent value, while fiat currencies (like the USD or CAD) don’t in the long run: it’s all about scarcity and production costs. Fiat is essentially “printed” by central banks at negligible cost—governments can create more whenever they want, often leading to inflation that erodes purchasing power. For instance, the U.S. has printed trillions since 2020 to fund stimulus, which has contributed to inflation rates peaking at over 9% in 2022 and still hovering around 2-3% today. This unlimited supply makes fiat vulnerable to devaluation; it’s backed only by trust in the issuing government, not by anything tangible.
Gold, on the other hand, can’t be conjured out of thin air. Its value stems from natural scarcity (only about 200,000 tons have ever been mined globally) and the high cost of extraction—mining requires significant energy, labor, and resources, which acts as a natural brake on supply. That’s why, as you mentioned with Vancouver housing, when priced in gold ounces instead of fiat dollars, real estate has actually trended slightly cheaper since the 1950s. Adjusted for gold, a median Vancouver home in the ‘50s might have cost around 200-300 ounces; today, even with sky-high CAD prices (often over $1.5M), it’s roughly 150-250 ounces depending on the neighborhood. This highlights how fiat inflation masks true value changes—the mayor’s recent op-ed (I believe from Kennedy Stewart or his successor in early 2025) drove this home by showing how gold-normalized metrics reveal housing affordability hasn’t worsened as dramatically as dollar figures suggest.
Bitcoin takes this scarcity digital: its protocol caps supply at 21 million coins, enforced by decentralized consensus rather than a central authority. “Mining” BTC isn’t free either—it demands massive computational power and electricity, creating a proof-of-work barrier that prevents arbitrary inflation. Unlike fiat, no one can just print more BTC to pay off debts; attempts to do so would break the network’s rules and tank its value. This fixed supply is why BTC has outperformed fiat over time—$1,000 invested in USD in 2010 is worth about $1,400 today after inflation, but in BTC, it’s worth millions.
In short, while governments might pivot to stablecoins backed by on-chain assets like ETH or BTC (as you predict), those could still inherit fiat’s flaws if centrally controlled. Sticking to truly scarce assets like gold or BTC is the hedge against endless printing.

If you have made it this far send me a NOSTR message so I can zap you some sats. :)The use of these stablecoins is far greater than the use of Lightning (layer 2 on bitcoin) and since July of 2025 the GENIUS Act has given financial companies the confidence to invest in these financial communication protocols. I still have high hopes for Lightning and I use it every day.

My nephew asked me a few days ago what I thought about the Stablecoins versus Gold / Silver or Bitcoin. Here is my reply.

To build on your point about fiat losing meaning, let’s clarify why assets like gold and Bitcoin hold inherent value, while fiat currencies (like the USD or CAD) don’t in the long run: it’s all about scarcity and production costs. Fiat is essentially “printed” by central banks at negligible cost—governments can create more whenever they want, often leading to inflation that erodes purchasing power. For instance, the U.S. has printed trillions since 2020 to fund stimulus, which has contributed to inflation rates peaking at over 9% in 2022 and still hovering around 2-3% today. This unlimited supply makes fiat vulnerable to devaluation; it’s backed only by trust in the issuing government, not by anything tangible.Gold, on the other hand, can’t be conjured out of thin air. Its value stems from natural scarcity (only about 200,000 tons have ever been mined globally) and the high cost of extraction—mining requires significant energy, labor, and resources, which acts as a natural brake on supply. That’s why, as you mentioned with Vancouver housing, when priced in gold ounces instead of fiat dollars, real estate has actually trended slightly cheaper since the 1950s. Adjusted for gold, a median Vancouver home in the ‘50s might have cost around 200-300 ounces; today, even with sky-high CAD prices (often over $1.5M), it’s roughly 150-250 ounces depending on the neighborhood. This highlights how fiat inflation masks true value changes—the mayor’s recent op-ed (I believe from Kennedy Stewart or his successor in early 2025) drove this home by showing how gold-normalized metrics reveal housing affordability hasn’t worsened as dramatically as dollar figures suggest.Bitcoin takes this scarcity digital: its protocol caps supply at 21 million coins, enforced by decentralized consensus rather than a central authority. “Mining” BTC isn’t free either—it demands massive computational power and electricity, creating a proof-of-work barrier that prevents arbitrary inflation. Unlike fiat, no one can just print more BTC to pay off debts; attempts to do so would break the network’s rules and tank its value. This fixed supply is why BTC has outperformed fiat over time—$1,000 invested in USD in 2010 is worth about $1,400 today after inflation, but in BTC, it’s worth millions.In short, while governments might pivot to stablecoins backed by on-chain assets like ETH or BTC (as you predict), those could still inherit fiat’s flaws if centrally controlled. Sticking to truly scarce assets like gold or BTC is the hedge against endless printing.

If you have made it this far send me a NOSTR message so I can zap you some sats. :)